Sublime Canine Services
6300 Lady Hammond Road B3K 2R6 Halifax, NS, Canada

When I had my first dog And truthfully, when I began my career, studying under my first mentor I believed dog training was about control. ... I wanted to control my dog’s behavior. I wanted to control our walks. I wanted to feel in control. And I very clearly remember the day when that changed. I was sitting in a large yard with my dog. He was running around Sniffing and peeing on things And I was waiting for him to remember I existed. And you know what? He didn’t. I mean, I could have called him - he would have come in an instant And I could have gotten up and walked out of the yard At which point he’d probably follow. But I wanted to see what he’d choose if I didn’t intervene or coax. I sat for what felt like an eternity. Hoping he’d at least check in. And he never came over to see what I was doing. In fact, he didn’t even think to. Because our entire relationship was about me giving him instructions Our entire relationship was about me telling him what to doand telling him what not to do. And when I didn’t do that When I gave him his choice back He didn’t choose me. I mean, why would he? And that was a painful, but necessary realization for me. Because regardless of how you choose to train your dog Dog training is about cooperation It’s not about control And if you focus your energy on control On being in, and feeling in control If you constantly tell your dog what to do, and what not to do You’re dog will be dependent on you to make good choices for them And they won’t know how to do it on their own.

I know we aren't supposed to anthroporphize, but in many circumstances, our dogs behave similarly to us. Here's an example... Let's suppose you were extra crank...y when you recently strained your back, felt sick. One might argue that we are less polite than we usually are because we feel poorly. The same is true for dogs! It's hard to behave well when we don't feel well. If your dog is acting out, we can't just assume that they need to be "trained" out of it. The first step is to ensure the dog is not unwell or in pain. Only then is it responsible to address the poor behavior, itself. This is a good example of evaluating the WHY dogs behave the way they do before we figure out the HOW to change it. Have you ever experienced a situation where a dog acted out because it was uncomfortable? If so, tell us about it.

We are still accepting people into our online basic life skills class!! Basic Life Skills - Online Classes Class Dates: Nov 8, 15, 22, 29, Dec 6, 13 Cost: $135 ...+tax ($150) Email: [email protected] with your puppy’s name, breed, and birthdate to sign up for class! Requirements: Access to the internet and a Facebook account. This Basic Life Skills class will operate online through a private Facebook group. The class will NOT be live, so you will not have to be worried about missing the sessions. So your lectures on the class lessons will be emailed so that you can keep them and always have access to them, and instructional videos will be posted to the Facebook group so you may work on things at your dogs’ pace. The Facebook group will also be used for students to share their videos of them practicing their homework with their own dogs, so that the instructor can give you tips and tricks on how to make what you’re doing even better. This class covers teaching our dogs to sit, stay, come, lay down, go to bed, have manners around food, on leash manners, handling skills, and more!

I hear a lot from frustrated dog owners that their dog won't "obey their commands." And if you have followed me for awhile, you probably know that I like to cha...llenge people's mindset. In this case, I'd like people to reflect on the use of the word "command." That's a pretty militant concept, don't you think? Instead, let's think of it another way. We are ASKING our dog to do something. We can't MAKE them do it. We can request in such a way, though, that makes it a good choice for the dog to make. Maybe we incentivise them with wonderful treats, affection, or a toy - so that it's in the dog's best interest to comply with our request. But if your dog says no, it's not because they are defiant or "bad." It's possible they don't understand what we want them to do - OR maybe we aren't motivating them enough to do what we are suggesting. What motivates YOUR dog?

I do know who needs to hear this: incorrect application of positive reinforcement-based procedures doesn’t mean positive reinforcement didn’t work. It means you were doing it wrong.I do know who needs to hear this: incorrect application of positive reinforcement-based procedures doesn’t mean positive reinforcement didn’t work. It means you were doing it wrong.